THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507290266
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
William F. Corvello was the indispensable man when he was named chief of police here in 1994, charged with restoring order and confidence to a force crippled by tragedy and mismanagement.
He still is, as it turns out. After abruptly announcing in May that he would retire in October, Corvello was coaxed into staying for two more years by an outpouring of support from the police department, municipal employees and residents.
In their minds, Corvello, 63, had more than lived up to his end of the bargain.
When he arrived in May 1994, the department's reputation had suffered a series of devastating blows, ranging from felony convictions against two street cops in 1992 to the resignation of the police chief in 1994.
It was a year of sorrow and crisis for the 350-member Newport News uniformed force: Two popular patrol officers, Steven R. Rutherford and Larry D. Bland, were killed in shootings four months apart in 1994.
After two investigations, Chief Jay A. Carey Jr. was found responsible for the botched undercover operation that led to Rutherford's death. When he was forced to resign on May 27, 1994, department morale hit bottom.
But that was also the day Corvello came on the scene like some kind of super hero. With an impeccable reputation accumulated after 37 years in Virginia law enforcement, the former head of the state troopers was named interim chief and almost immediately stemmed the hemorrhaging of confidence. He was named permanently to the department's top job in August.
``He put cement on things right from the get-go,'' said a Newport News police officer who asked not to be identified. ``This was a fractured, divided department, and he brought us back together. If nothing else, he gave us a sense of stability.''
That stability, though, was suddenly threatened less than a year later when Corvello announced on May 16 that he would retire.
Then came the pleas for him to stay. It seemed that the city had become smitten with the straight-arrow ex-Marine who came to help Newport News during one of its darkest hours. The same aura of integrity and analytical acumen that had impressed Richmond when Gov. L. Douglas Wilder named Corvello to lead the state police in 1990 had also won over Newport News.
That's all it took, Corvello said, for him to change his mind. On July 14 he announced he would stay.
``I really had no perception that my announcement that I was leaving would have the response that it did from people in the department, in the community and in city government,'' Corvello said last week. ``There was a perception out there that the police department had reformed pretty well during the past year, and that people were feeling a bit better about the sense of safety and security that we had many years ago.''
Corvello also feared that, while he had pointed the department in the right direction, he was leaving before he got it moving. He was concerned that it might slip back and get stalled under new leadership.
``I wanted to be sure that when I left here I could look back on a positive achievement,'' said Corvello, who retired from the state police in 1992. The only way to do this, he said, was to stay long enough ``to ensure that those things (I instituted) did become reasonably permanent.''
While acknowledging that everything has not been ``peaches and cream'' between his office and City Hall, Corvello rejected a persistent rumor in the police department that his recent decisions were the result of conflicts with City Manager Ed Maroney.
Bobby Kipper, police department spokesman, gave this explanation:
``There probably were some personnel issues that did not flow the way he wanted them to flow. But he has always had total support from the city manager's office.''
Kipper said he did not know if Corvello's ``powers were increased when he came back here.''
The personnel decisions made by Corvello have been tough and decisive, both hallmarks of Corvello's management style when he was making a name for himself in the Virginia State Police. In those days, Corvello was often so quick in making decisions that some considered him impulsive. But in Newport News, Corvello's management style seemed a good fit for the troubled department.
Since taking over the reins in Newport News, Corvello has fired eight police officers, two of whom faced criminal prosecution. The others were fired after an analysis of efficiency and competency in the department.
That seems to go against Corvello's claim that the Newport News Police Department was not in need of a major overhaul when he took over for Jay Carey a year ago. But Corvello does not characterize what he has done as radical change.
Nor do the cops on the beat.
``He really hasn't made drastic changes,'' said a police lieutenant who asked that his name not be used. ``But you can't really do that anyway. You can't revamp a department overnight.''
The termination decisions, the lieutenant said, appear to have been carefully thought out and ``were right on the mark.''
One nonpersonnel move that Corvello made, the lieutenant said, is to pull back in a small but significant way from community policing, mostly as a reaction to the pizza-delivery sting operation that ended with Rutherford's slaying in January 1994.
A sergeant planned that operation, the lieutenant said. But now only higher-ups in the department can plan and authorize the kind of decoy investigation that turned tragic.
``Back then the sergeants were running the street,'' the lieutenant said. ``Now that kind of thing is controlled from above.''
But Corvello said he is convinced that community policing will be a mainstay of the future.
He has made himself very visible, appearing frequently before church and civic groups and convincing many in the city's minority-dominated southeast community that they can now trust the police department.
This was recently highlighted when he spearheaded the search for the person who was attacking young girls in the East End. The series of crimes remains unsolved. The most recent attack was in September.
Corvello is ``one of the first police chiefs to represent all of the city of Newport News,'' said southeast resident Herbert L. Hodge.
Another highlight during his tenure, the chief says, is changing the way citizen complaints against officers are handled. A small staff now investigates the complaints, which he hopes will help the public feel comfortable that legitimate complaints can be made and will be fairly investigated.
The public needs to know that ``we are going to objectively and without bias find out what happened and take corrective measures,'' Corvello said.
Corvello also points to the increased depth of background investigations made on prospective police officers and improved training for new officers as other key accomplishments.
Despite Corvello's presence, the dark year of 1994 continues to haunt the department. Most recently, Rutherford's widow filed a lawsuit against several officers who were involved with the sting operation that killed her husband.
But Corvello believes the corner toward respectability has been turned, and he plans to remain on the job long enough this time to make sure the direction is maintained.
He has promised the city manager that he will be chief for two more years, until he reaches 65.
Until then, he said, his overall theme for the department will be one that has been used for years in education: Get back to the basics.
``And the absolute basic, ultimately, is an effective response to the public,'' Corvello said. ``All of the strategies that have been implemented in the last year have been aimed towards that - being properly responsive to the public, reminding ourselves that we work for the public, and convincing the public that we are properly sensitive to them.'' ILLUSTRATION: William F. Corvello, 63, was coaxed into delaying his retirement
by two years.
by CNB